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 The deal, which would drop to about 75 million pounds if the just
relegated club does not get back into the English Premier League (EPL)
next season, will see the chairman of little-known Recon Group, Xia
Jiantong, become the first mainland Chinese to fully own an English
team.
Xia told Reuters in an interview that the club, which counts actor
Tom Hanks and Britain's Prince William among its fans, would spend
30-40 million pounds on players for next season.
That would be a hefty budget for a team in English football's second
tier, but would be no splurge by the standards of the EPL - to which
he aims to return the club - where one top player can cost more than
that.
As a route to success, Xia cited the example of Leicester City, the
rank outsiders who won the EPL this season, beating
billionaire-backed rivals Manchester City and Chelsea, which spent
many times more on players.
"The club won't take the path of burning money; we are a business,
not funded by Arab oil wealth," he said in a statement.
He did not say whether the club would recoup money by selling any
current players.
 Xia said during an interview in Beijing on Thursday that Villa was
one of eight EPL clubs he had considered buying.
Xia also said he was in talks with various soccer teams in Spain and
Italy for potential acquisitions within three years, and was also in
talks in China and India.
That would further boost China's profile in the sport, a growing
presence supported by avid football fan President Xi Jinping, who
has made it a goal to one day win the World Cup.
Beijing has plowed huge sums into grassroots academies, television
rights, transfer deals for overseas players and investment in clubs
abroad.
In another potential deal that could help with Xi's ambitions,
Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Chinese e-commerce giant
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is in talks to become a top sponsor of
FIFA, the international body that runs the World Cup.
More broadly, Beijing is aiming to grow the domestic sports market
to 5 trillion yuan ($782 billion) by 2025, about five times its
current scale.
Recon Group, which has a controlling interest in five publicly
listed companies on the Hong Kong and Chinese stock exchanges, said
it was in talks to appoint a new Villa manager who has won the UEFA
Champions League.
That will stoke the rumors that Roberto di Matteo, who as caretaker
Chelsea manager won European soccer's top competition in 2011-12, is
favorite for the job.
Xia said the club was already considering specific candidates after
more than a month of searching and an announcement could come within
two to three weeks. MOST FAMOUS
China's biggest overseas investment in football so far occurred in
December last year, when a consortium led by state-backed China
Media Capital took a $400 million stake in the owner of Villa's
larger and wealthier rival, Manchester City.
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The Villa deal, however, with 100 percent ownership, is not just an
investment.
"The Chinese ownership now get to decide how to run the club," said
Mark Dreyer, Beijing-based founder of sports information website
China Sports Insider.
Crosstown arch-rivals Birmingham City are also run from Asia,
following the 2009 takeover by Hong Kong businessman Carson Yeung.
Villa's American owner Randy Lerner, who put the club on the market
in 2014, struck the deal after former English champions Villa
suffered a miserable season, ending bottom of the EPL, with only
half the points of the next worst team.
The deal with American-educated Xia, 39, ends an unhappy tenure for
Lerner, who bought the club for 62.2 million pounds in 2006. Fans
have openly demonstrated against his continued involvement with
Villa, who were European champions in 1982 and have won the English
top-flight title seven times, most recently in 1980-81.
"Aston Villa's relegation really played in their favor," said
Fredrik van Huynh, Shanghai-based director of HHC Sports Group. "It
will have pushed down the price quite significantly."
Xia, who said he had played football in middle school and dreamed of
owning a club since his time in university, declined to say how long
he had been in talks with Villa, but they had begun before it was
clear the team would be relegated.
Earlier this month he had posted on his official microblog: "Go,
Villa, Go! We will be back."
The club said Xia's immediate objective was "to return Aston Villa
to the Premier League and then to have the club finish in the top
six, bringing European football back to Villa Park."
It added the deal would also help make Villa the most famous
football club in China.
Dreyer at China Sports Insider dismissed that as "simply ludicrous,"
given the appeal of much bigger rivals such as Spain's Barcelona and
England's Manchester United and Arsenal. ($1 = 0.6833 pounds)
(Additional reporting by Neil Robinson in London, Sabrina Mao in
Beijing and Stella Tsang in Hong Kong; Writing by Will Waterman;
Editing by Alex Richardson)
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